Letters

Letters

Article excerpt

Reasons behind Muslim reaction to drawings in Denmark

Regarding the Nov. 10 article, "Danish editor tests right to
violate Muslim taboos": I think you have misunderstood the root
cause of why Danish Muslims, ambassadors from 11 Muslim-dominated
countries, and the Organization of the Islamic Conference reacted
against the Jylland-Posten drawings of the Prophet Muhammad.

The Muslim prophet was depicted as a terrorist, a man of
violence, and an oppressor of women in several of the illustrations.
I believe in any society such degrading, misinformed depictions of
important figures would be passionately denounced.

Since Danish society would censure any insulting depiction of
their head of state or national founder, for example, I find it
awkward that Muslims would be scorned for having the same degree of
reactions when their religious sanctity is violated in such a gross
manner.

Sadly, both the newspapers and the Danish government, with
backing of the far-right Danish Peoples Party, have supported such
gross depiction without any balanced understanding of the Muslim
sensitivities. It is a shame that the far-right has been allowed
largely to dominate Danish views of immigrants. Atilla A.
IftikharStavanger, Norway

A couple of comments on the Nov. 10 article "Danish editor tests
right to violate Muslim taboos": As one who has spent time in
Denmark in the past few years, I was pleased to see this informative
article on Denmark's uneasy relationship with its Muslim minority.
What the article presents may, however, be just the tip of the
iceberg.

Because Denmark has a state church (Lutheran), many Danes regard
membership in the state church as a given for Danish identity -
although few attend church regularly. This is an additional factor
in the simmering debate over how to include a Muslim community in
this country. Lucie Lehmann-BarclayBoston

Interpreting intelligence is a tough job

Regarding the Nov. 15 article, "Yellowcake to 'Plamegate' ": I've
been following this story closely for many months and didn't think I
would learn much from this story. …